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Poverty of education and opportunity

On the day that the Assembly Government launches its strategy for child poverty, figures were released today regarding the number of NEETS in Wales.

NEETS are those young people who are not in education, employment or training and I first blogged on this phenomenon over two years ago.

The figures are shocking.

In 1999, there were 50,000 NEETS in Wales aged between 16 and 24.

By 2006, this had risen to 55,200, a rise of more than ten per cent.

In the last three years alone, there has been an increase of over 5,000, mainly among 19-24 year olds.

This is despite tens of millions of pounds of Assembly and European funding being spent on this problem.

Something is seriously going wrong with the whole approach to supporting young people within our poorest communities and rather than announcing another strategy, perhaps the politicians and their civil servants could try and explain why the situation is getting worse, and not better, in Wales, and do something constructive about it

Comments

Anonymous said…
it;s all thatcher's fault...oh no, wait, its the party that plaid cymru have sold their soul to....
culture of nihilism, not only in wales but UK
Anonymous said…
oks o plenty of talk where the action and resources to do something about it.
It wouldn't hurt to actually have people in DCELLS who understood what was involved and had hands on experience!!!!!

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